Name: Lights, Cameras, Action! - Art of Gaming
Uploaded: 2018-08-06T00:00:00.000+02:00
Duration: 1042 s
Description: What happens when cinema meets video games? Trinity investigates with scriptwriter Jean-Luc Cano by playing ‘Life is Strange’, ‘Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice’ and ‘Beyond: Two Souls’.

Art of Gaming

Lights, Cameras, Action!

Cisza na planie!

¡Silencio, se rueda!

Art of Gaming: ciak, si gira!

What happens when cinema meets video games? Trinity investigates with scriptwriter Jean-Luc Cano by playing ‘Life is Strange’, ‘Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice’ and ‘Beyond: Two Souls’.

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<p>What happens when cinema meets video games? Trinity investigates with scriptwriter Jean-Luc Cano by playing ‘Life is Strange’, ‘Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice’ and ‘Beyond: Two Souls’.</p>

What happens when cinema meets video games? Trinity investigates with scriptwriter Jean-Luc Cano. 

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Melek visits VR developers Illusion Walk at their Berlin offices and tries out the latest in virtual reality gaming technology.

Melek visits tries out the latest in VR gaming technology at Illusion Walk in Berlin.

Virtual Reality

Open world games such as ‘Grand Theft Auto’ offer an immense territory for the player to explore. But is this just an illusion of liberty? Trinity and Sébastien Genvo explore ‘Skyrim’, ‘The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’ and ‘Shadow of the Colossus’.

Open world games offer an immense territory for players to explore. But is this just an illusion of liberty?

Open Worlds

Melek and Dennis Niewerth, sociologist and consultant at the German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven, dive in and explore worlds of water in video games.

Melek and Dennis Niewerth dive in and explore worlds of water in video games.

Water

Why do people play sports video games instead of going outside and playing real sports? Trinity and e-sports commentator Brak play ‘Kick Off Revival’, ‘NBA 2k18’ and ‘Top Spin 4’.

Why do people play sports video games instead of going outside and playing real sports?

Virtual Ball Games

Melek Balgün and games designer Anjin Anhut test out combat games with titles such as ‘Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting’, ‘Nidhogg 2’ and the atypical game ‘Johann Sebastian Joust’.

Melek Balgün and games designer Anjin Anhut focus on combat games.

Fighting Games

Do we play video games in the same way around the world? Trinity along with gaming blogger Diraen explore video games made by different cultures: They play “Gravity Rush”, “Dynasty Warriors 8” and “Aurion: Legacy of the Kori-Odan”.

Trinity along with gaming blogger Diraen explore video games made by different cultures.

Around the World

How are dreams represented in video games? Melek and gaming critic Stephan Greitemeier play ‘Dream’, ‘The Dream Machine’ and ‘The Evil Within 2’, entering unnerving sleeping worlds that sometimes turn into nightmares.

How are dreams represented in video games?

Dream of Virtual Sheep

Doors can be scary in games such as ‘Resident Evil’ and ‘Silent Hill: The Room’. What lies behind these mysterious portals? Trinity plays and discusses their significance with gaming writer Jean Zeid.

Doors in can be scary in games such as ‘Resident Evil’’. What lies behind these portals?

Hold the Door

In some games, the text isn't just a signpost that signals a change in the action. It's integrated into the very nature of the game itself. Melek plays games that challenge our perception of the role of text in her video game alongside her guest, Lisa Gotto, a media sociologist.

What happens when the game is text and text is the game? 

Typographic Video Gaming

The goal of the platform games is clear: get from one end to the other - from left to right - without dying. Do this enough times and you'll reach a boss, before making it to another level and the cycle starts all over again. But despite how simple the formula sounds, it's actually a genre full of some of the hardest video games, such as Cuphead and Super Meat Boy. Even with Super Mario or Inside, you know you'll have to see your avatar die on a regular basis.

Playing a platform game like Super Mario means that you have to be OK with the fact that you'll watch your avatar die on a regular basis

Jump 'n' Run

Melek Balgün plays "Anno 1404", "World of Warcraft" and "That Dragon, Cancer" with Andreas Lange, and interviews Tobias Knoll about how players perceive religion in games.

Melek Balgün interviews Tobias Knoll about how players perceive religion in video games.

Religion Art of Gaming

It seems that nearly all computer games are based on capitalist ideology, always collecting and amassing possessions whether they be gold coins, apples or weapons. With philosopher Mathieu Triclot, Trinity explores the political ideology of video games.

Always amassing things whether it is gold coins, apples or weapons.... Are all video games capitalist?

Capitalism

Two lines and a dot were enough for Pong to conquer the video game world. Melek Balgün looks at minimalist games Duet, Hook, Necrosphere and Limbo with specialist researcher Sebastian Standke

Melek Balgün looks at minimalist games Duet, Hook, Necrosphere and Limbo with researcher Sebastian Standke.

As simple as that

The first person perspective allows the player to truly embody the character and immerse themselves in the game.

First Person Perspective

Video game photographer Martin Geisler shows us with examples from “Skyrim”, “the Hunter” and “Squad” that photography within gameplay has become as art form.

Video game photographer Martin Geisler shows us that photography within gameplay has become as art form.

In-Game Photography

Love is a major theme running through all art forms. From the medieval chivalry of ‘The Witcher 3’ to the consumerist world of  ‘The Sims’, how is it represented in gaming?

Love is a major theme running through all art forms. How is it represented in gaming?

Love is a Game

Don’t play with your food! we were all told as children. In video games from Pac-man to the latest survival titles like “Don’t Starve”, the opposite is true.

Don’t play with your food! we were told as children. But with video games we always have...

Eat it!

How does it feel to cross deserts, prairies or forests in a virtual environment? Melek and her guest play ‘Red Dead Redemption’, ‘Firewatch’ and ‘Flame and Flood’ and discuss how nature is represented in art, films, and gaming.

Melek and her guest play ‘Red Dead Redemption’, ‘Firewatch’ and ‘Flame and Flood’ and discuss how nature is represented.

Nature

Female representation in video games has long been a source of frustration for female gamers. Protagonists were almost always male with female characters often reduced to sexual objects. Things have changed since Lara Croft and “Horizon Zero Dawn”.

Female representation in video games has long been a source of frustration for female gamers. 

Women as Heroes

Why are racing games so popular? Sports science researcher, Nicolas Besombes, is Trinity’s guest in this episode all about speed. Featured titles are “Sonic Mania” and two racing classics: “Gran Turismo” and “Wipeout”.

Sports science researcher Nicolas Besombes is Trinity’s guest in this episode all about our need for speed.

Go Fast

In the human mind monsters have always existed, finding representation in myths and sagas all over the world.  But what is our peculiar fascination with terrifying beasts in video gaming?

Monsters haunt the human mind. What is our peculiar fascination with them in video gaming?

Monsters

Why are there so many birds in video games? This episode of Art of Gaming is going to find out with a survey of the best bird-theme games.

Why are there so many birds in video games?

Birds in Gaming

The multiplayer mode in gaming lets you play against your family, your friends, and even people you've never met before. How does playing against a real person change how you view the game, and how you play?

How does playing against a real person change how you view the game?

Versus

Do video games make us lonely? This is what the media often implies. And yet today, it's impossible to be a good MMORPG player without also beign in a team. Many games require effective cooperation to advance to the next level. So, are video games actually a way of improving our social skills?

Team Spirit

Trinity and Thomas Gaon, a psychologist, cheerfully kill each other in Call of Duty 4, and then team up to destroy their enemies. Sounds healthy to you? In this episode, Trinity tries to understand why we enjoy killing characters in video games so much.

In this episode, Trinity tries to understand why we enjoy killing characters in video games so much

The Act of Killing

Video games are often full of action and face-to-face showdowns. But sometimes they can also leave the player alone with his thoughts, giving him or her a sensation of solitude and the space for introspection. Melek analyses the genre with three loneliness experts: an ESA astronaut trainer, a philosopher and a media specialist.

Melek analyses loneliness with three loneliness experts: an ESA astronaut trainer, a philosopher and a media specialist

Art of Gaming - Loneliness

Some video games created the soundtrack to the childhood of a generation. Who can forget the catchy Tetris music, the hopping theme of Super Mario Bros, or the intro of PacMan? Since then, video game music has become more and more cinematic. Author Damien Mecheri and Trinity trace the development of music throughout the history of gaming.

Some video games created the soundtrack to the childhood of a generation

Let The Music Play

Some worlds in games seem lifeless, but for most games, background characters are part of what makes the games so vibrant and convincing. Though powered by an algorithm, these characters can come to feel like friends. Via Bioshock: Infinite, Transistor and Gears of War 3, Melek and her guest Jonathan Harth, a sociologist, analyse the different forms that these characters can take.

For most games, background characters are part of what makes the games so vibrant and convincing

Ghost in the Machine

Can video games, just like movies, be comedies? Usul and Trinity analyse how humour works in Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon and The Stanley Parable. The burlesque, irony, or the absurd, often take centre stage in these types of games. It's what makes them worth playing.

Usul and Trinity analyse how humour works in Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon and The Stanley Parable

Humour

Video games, unlike other forms of art, have to integrate instructions into the game. But how do you integrate instructions creatively, without being overbearing but still getting the message across? Melek talks through the issues with Jörg Friedrich, a game designer, as they play Spelunky, Warcraft 3 and Far Cry.

How do you integrate instructions creatively, without being overbearing but still getting the message across?

Tutorials

In literature and cinema, it is often the bad guys who captivate us the most. In video games, you can actually become them: the iconic Dark Vader (Star Wars: the Force Unleashed), a violent psychopath (Man Hunt), or even an immigration officer (Paper Please). Trinity and Yann Leroux plunge into the dark side of video games.

In literature and cinema, it is often the bad guys who captivate us the most. In video games, you can actually become them

Bad Guys

Above, below, left, right. Our sense of direction comes naturally to us. But how do you create this sense of realistic, physical space in video games? And if gravity is optional, how can a game mantain a sense of realism?

How do you create a sense of realistic, physical space in video games?

Orientation

History is a playground for game designers. Sybile Collas (Narrative designer) and Trinity go back to WW1 in Battlefield 1, rewrite history with Wolfenstein: The New Order, and discover an imagined history in Bioshock Infinite. Utopia, dystopia or uchrony, why these genres so compelling?

History is a playground for game designers

Alternate History

When we think about sex in video games, we think of the classic Leisure Suit Larry, or the crude representations that are a reward for the player rather than a part of the plot. Some games take a different approach. Melek discusses sex in gaming with gaming journalist Nina Kiel and sexologist Jan Winter.

Melek discusses sex in gaming with gaming journalist Nina Kiel and sexologist Jan Winter

Sex in Video Games

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In 1974, the French erotic film Emmanuelle broke audience records: almost 350 million viewers worldwide and a twelve-year run on the Champs Elysées in Paris. After the success of the sexually explicit Last Tango in Paris, Emmanuelle appeared at a turning point in French society: The sexual emancipation following May '68 in France. 

Queen of French Erotic Cinema

In 1974, the French erotic film Emmanuelle broke audience records: almost 350 million viewers worldwide and a twelve-year run on the Champs Elysées in Paris

Emmanuelle

Peaches, M.I.A., Dorian Electra and King Krule: this Tracks special highlights the most impressive vocalists to have featured on the show. Gender fluid, subversive, and challenging, these are the artists that break boundaries across genres.

Tracks

Peaches, M.I.A., Dorian Electra and King Krule: this Tracks special highlights the most impressive vocalists to have featured on the show

The Best Vocalists of Tracks

In Japan, the “washlet” combines Western toilets with Japanese hygiene standards. A clever combination of comfort and cleanliness, they're considered a basic essential for people in Japan, although visitors may be left baffled as to how to use them. They have dozens of functionalities.

Gacha Gacha (1/9)

Japanese toilets make the bathroom experience a high tech luxury

Toilets, Perfected

Eating ramen in Japan is a unique sensory and auditory experience. Here, the noodles are noisily slurped up. Considered rude in the West, in Japan this every day gesture is imbued with meaning.

Gacha Gacha (2/9)

In Japan, far from being rude, slurping is all about appreciating ramen's unique palette of flavours

Zuru Zuru: The Sound of Street Food

In Tokyo, sounds blair at you from all sides: the traffic lights that sound like chirping birds, the beep that signals when you enter a shop, and most of all, the delicate and detailed train station jingles. Every station has its own aural identity, crafted by a dedicated composer who has been writing train jingles for decades. 

Gacha Gacha (3/9)

 Every station has its own aural identity, crafted by composer who has been writing train jingles for decades

Eki-Melody: Japan's Train Jingles

In Japan politeness is deeply codified depending on your place in the hierarchy. Where you stand in the lift, how you get into a taxi, and especially how you greet others, depends on your social standing. The concept of Ojigi is instilled in every Japanese child, and adults go on to hire consultants to make sure they get the nuances just right. But if it sounds deeply constraining, it is supposed to provide balance and stability.

Gacha Gacha (5/9)

In Japan where you stand in the lift, how you get into a taxi, and especially how you greet others, depends on your social standing

Ojigi, The Art of Deference

Almost every public place in Tokyo is spotless, rubbed and polished clean by government workers. But there are places even their hard-working hands don't quite reach: grimy neighbourhoods full of character and down-in-the-heel charm. And in those streets, roams an elderly ramen seller making his living feeding drunks in the middle of the night.

Gacha Gacha (4/9)

In grimy neighbourhoods full of character, an elderly ramen seller ekes out a living feeding drunks

The Old Ramen Seller

From the Greek gods to the Bourbons: in many eras, long hair on a man meant virility, power and nobility. In today's western world, short hairstyles are a sign of discipline and authority. But why do fans of the most masculine of all music genres - metal - usually have long hair?

Gymnastics

A potted history of long hair on men, and why metalheads love their long locks

Why Metalheads Have Long Hair

With his Stetson on his head and a cigarette in his mouth, Townes Van Zandt (1944-1997), was a singer-songwriter of incandescent, beautifully despairing country songs. He was an artist plagued by demons, often under the influence of alcohol and drugs, but he nevertheless wrote some of the masterpieces of American song, including "If I Needed You" and "To Live is to Fly", and managed to climb to the top of the charts in spite of himself with the song "Pancho and Lefty", first popularised by Emmylou Harris and then covered by Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard. His song 'Kathleen' was recently covered by Tindersticks.
 Troubled Troubadour
Through concert footage, film archives and interviews, this remarkable documentary sensitively traces Townes Van Zandt's formative experiences and existential and artistic ups and downs - from the beginning of his musical career, inspired by early Bob Dylan records and legendary blues bard Lightnin' Hopkins, to his untimely death. His managers, his children, his three wives and numerous musician friends shed light on his personality and reveal the affection they had for this troubled troubadour.

Portait of troubled Texan folk singer Townes van Zandt (1944-1997) who wrote beautiful and despairing country songs.

Townes Van Zandt: Be Here to Love Me

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Lena is a 17-year-old girl from a middle-class family who is experiencing her first love: secret night adventures and magical morning walks along the Danube. However, her dream world is shattered when she is raped.

A Film by Tereza Nvotová

Lena is a 17-year-old girl from a middle-class family who is experiencng her first love: secret night adventures and magical morning walks along the Danube. However, her dream world is shattered when she is raped.

Filthy

Behind his polite exterior lies a formidable leader with a ruthless character, ready to do anything to make China the world's leading power by the People’s Republic’s centenary in 2049. This well-documented portrait of the Chinese president gives an unprecedented insight into his politics and shows how Xi Jinping's personal journey has shaped his choices as he steers China towards world domination.

A portrait of the Chinese president giving an unprecedented insight into his politics and showing how Xi Jinping's personal journey has shaped his choices as he steers China towards world domination.

The New World of Xi Jinping

Darío Aguirre is from Ecuador, living in Germany with his wife. When the city of Hamburg unexpectedly invited him to become a German citizen, Darío revisits his rocky path to building a life for himself in Europe and wonders about who he has become. This film is about arriving and living abroad in a time when xenophobia is suddenly acceptable again in Germany, and society is struggling to find the right way to integrate new citizens.

 What it's like to live in Germany as a foreigner when xenophobia is suddenly socially acceptable again

How I Became German

In France, the bungalow evokes holidays in the sun. In the UK, they are humble everyday dwellings for grandparents. But in Germany or the United States, they take on a very different form: they are a bourgeois luxury, a single-storey villa with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking nature. Inspired by the "bangalo", a traditional one-storey Bengal house open to the outside, this style was also a staple of colonial architecture. 

In the US and Germany, bungalows are a bourgeois luxury: a single-storey villa with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking nature

The Beauty of Bungalows

Two sets of gay parents discover that their children are related via their biological father. This sensitive and humourous documentary follows the two families as they navigate how best to involve the siblings in each other's lives.

Two sets of gay parents discover that their children are related via their biological father

My Extraordinary Family

Fasciae, hidden connective tissues, are largely unstudied parts of our anatomy. What role do they play in the organism? And could a better understanding of them help in finding a cure for back pain?

The Hidden World Under Our Skin

Fasciae, hidden connective tissues are largely unstudied. What role do they play in the human body?

Fascinating Fasciae

Cesaria Evora made the music of the Cape Verde islands famous throughout the world in the early 1990s. This film is an introduction to the culture, music and zest for life of the Cape Verdean people.

The Music of Cape Verde

Looking for Cesária Évora

The pole vault is a discipline is based on the transformation of kinetic energy into elastic energy and then into gravitational energy. Athletes must play with energy, optimise it, transform it, and conserve it.

The Strongest of Them All

Athletes must play with energy, optimise it, transform it, and conserve it

Pole Vaulting: Overcoming Gravity

 French swimmer Florent Manaudou, German pentathlete Marvin Dogue and French sabre fencer Cécilia Berder all trained hard for the Tokyo Olympics, but the most important part of their training they say is in the mind. Mental conditioning is a growing science designed to get the best out of sports champions at a time when they could crumble under the pressure. At the beginning of World War Two, American airforce pilots struggled to face off against the Japanese fleet. Cue Bud Winter: in peace time, a sports coach, and in war, a mental conditioner who taught the pilots how to keep their head in the game even in life-or-death situations. Gradually, the idea that sportsmen and women were as much mind as they were muscle took hold. 

 For Olympic French swimmer Florent Manaudou, his greatest challenge is mental, not physical

Inside the Heads of Champions

Since antiquity, scientists have tracked down the principles behind the movements of moving things, from planets to athletes. Running champions make sure of basic principles of physics developed by Newton to improve their performance. We take a look at the maths behind the movement. 

The Mechanics of Strength

Since antiquity, scientists have tracked down the principles behind the movements of moving things, from planets to athletes

Sprinting and Newton's Law

From Chur, Switzerland’s oldest city, to Tirano in Northern Italy, the Bernina Express winds its way through deep valleys and wild gorges, crossing some 196 bridges and going through 55 tunnels in its journey through the Graubünden Alps. A journey to discover one of the most spectacular railway lines in the world and an audacious feat of engineering.

A Train through the Alps

 A journey of discovery on one of the most spectacular railway lines in the world, and an audacious feat of engineering.

The Bernina Express

The Chachapoyas of Peru fascinate archaeologists and historians. Between the 8th and the 16th centuries this reputedly fierce warrior people practiced an unusual mortuary ritual.

Archaeological Investigations

The Chachapoyas of Peru fascinate archaeologists and historians with their unusual mortuary rituals.

Chachapoyas: Living with the Dead

38 million Japanese live together in the most populated urban area in the world. No wonder that the people of Tokyo have taken over the roofs to have extra space. A traditional Japanese garden and tea house, along with a martial arts class, take to the skies in search of  tranquility.

A traditional Japanese garden and tea house, along with a martial arts class, take to the skies in search of  tranquility

City Rooftops: Tokyo

From the Théâtre de l’Archevêché, Mozart’s opera – directed by Lotte de Beer – opens the festivities at the Aix-en-Provence opera festival. Conductor Thomas Hengelbrock leads a fine vocal ensemble that includes soprano Julie Fuchs, baritone Andrè Schuen and mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre.

Aix-en-Provence Festival 2021

Mozart’s opera – directed by Lotte de Beer – opens the festivities of the festival of lyric art in Aix-en-Provence.

Art of Gaming